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Byron Shire
November 12, 2026

Suffolk Park DA

Latest News

Are you a Northern Rivers creative?

Regional Arts NSW CEO, Tracey Callinan will be at the Byron Community Centre from 12 noon tomorrow to hear about the needs and experiences of local artists and all Northern Rivers creatives are invited to attend. 

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Role of the Greens

Recent articles and letters in The Echo have provided different perspectives about Australian politics today and the Australian Greens. There...

‘Dancing against violence’ in Lismore

A sold-out gala in Lismore has raised more than $200,000 for Women Up North (WUN) and its Bugalma Bihyn Aboriginal Women’s Refuge, which can accommodate up to five families.

The developer’s ad for 9-15 Clifford St, Suffolk Park (4 November) has a lot of misleading and incorrect information. Here are just some examples.

The ad says ‘Shops’, but the documents state there will be a 60-seat restaurant plus a 30-seat cafe, each open 7am–10pm, seven days per week.

The ad champions their ‘affordable housing’ credentials. But they are demolishing nine 2–3 bedroom houses of modest rent and replacing them with three tiny units (1x 1-bed and 2x 2-bed). These they are the three smallest and worst units of them all, in contravention of good planning principles from the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure. All face south on to Clifford Street, so not much privacy, and are above the noisy restaurant and cafe. And they will only be affordable for 15 years.

The ad says ‘Parking exceeds requirements’. Technically this is correct, but the six luxury 3-4 bed houses (each with a pool) all have their own double garage. So that’s 12 spots, though the formula says they only need nine. So the people in the ten units (18 bedrooms in total) get to share the remaining five spots.

The 60-seat restaurant (+6 staff), the 30-seat restaurant (+3 staff) and any visitors/tradies/delivery vehicles for units/shops get 14 spots to share. The parking spots are accessed via one six-metre-wide driveway for both directions. So is another four spots generous?

The ad says ‘fully compliant’, but there’s not enough open space, even if they are allowed to count their inappropriate public art amongst trees as ‘open space’. ‘Attachment 30 – Apartment Design Guide Table of Assessment’, page 6.

See linktr.ee/CliffordStDA for more info.

Karin Kolbe, Suffolk Park



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Lest We Forget – a time to remember

On Wednesday, 11 November the Mullumbimby RSL Sub-Branch conducted a Remembrance Day Service at the Mullumbimby Cenotaphe joining similar events in Byron Bay, Ballina, Lismore and around the country.  

Where dance meets art

Making Contact is a collective exhibition bringing together artists from the Mullumbimby Contact Improvisation community.

Editorial – Defining the future of Byron

Visiting friends had two things to say about Byron, it was smaller than they were expecting and wasn’t it amazing that the buildings were so low and you could still see the sky.

Eight years on, Baywood Chase Lake still waiting for a fix

A Suffolk Park lake, ranked as the number one source of pollution into Tallow Creek, is yet to see any work to improve its health, eight years after a management plan was first drafted.